Tracking energy use, energy expenditures, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the first step in developing informed regional and local policies to increase energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions. DVRPC periodically inventories our region's energy consumption, energy expenditures, and GHG emissions. This inventory is allocated to the region's counties and municipalities. DVRPC's most recent inventory is for calendar year 2010 (the most recent year for which all data are available), and updates a baseline inventory for 2005. A map-based web tool provides users with a multi-page summary of energy use and GHG emissions for any municipality in the region.

Renewable energy sources are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of our region's energy mix. DVRPC's Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives supports the safe and sound development of renewable energy in our region. Through Solar Ready II, DVRPC will work with municipalities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to understand and implement best management practices that help reduce the "soft costs" of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. DVRPC's
Renewable Energy Ordinance Frameworks serve as a resource for municipalities as they develop and update ordinances to govern the siting of small-scale renewable energy systems (including solar photovoltaic, small wind <100kW, and geothermal) in their communities.
Learn more about Solar Ready II and how you can participate.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy use are key concerns and outcomes of many activities at DVRPC. DVRPC's Office of Energy and Climate Change Initiatives will work with staff to integrate climate change and energy concerns into all appropriate aspects of DVRPC's work. This might include, for example, evaluating the greenhouse gas emission and energy usage implications of various TIP projects or assuring that projects are designed and planned taking climate change impacts into account. In addition, this effort will work to elevate the positive implications for greenhouse gas reductions and energy conservation associated with long-standing DVRPC goals, such as brownfield development, ozone reduction, and transit-oriented development.

DVRPC's Long Range Plan,
Connections 2040 Plan for Greater Philadelphia, approved by DVRPC's Board in July 2013, identifies Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions as one of the key goals critical to realizing a sustainable future for our region. In the plan, DVRPC outlines a regional target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2040.

Sea Level Rise Planning and Climate Ready Estuaries

Climate change and sea level rise pose serious threats to human and natural communities that are likely to materialize regardless of the success of greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. DVRPC is working with its regional partners - through such programs as the EPA-sponsored
Climate Ready Estuaries initiative - to begin the process of assessing and adapting to sea level rise impacts to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities and natural ecosystems to the worst impacts of climate change. DVRPC published
Sea Level Rise Impacts in the Delaware Estuary of Pennsylvania to motivate decision makers to consider the impacts of sea level rise on tidal wetlands, water quality, and coastal redevelopment efforts. Recently, DVRPC co-authored a
nationwide study analyzing both the likelihood of shoreline protection and the impacts of shoreline protection efforts on tidal wetland migration.

This page includes resources and funding opportunities available to local governments in the region who are seeking to retrofit traffic signals, streetlights, and other outdoor area lighting with more energy efficient technology. DVRPC has developed tools and resources to assist local governments in analyzing the costs and benefits of these types of retrofits.

Throughout the region, schools, local governments, businesses, and residents are realizing considerable financial benefits by integrating energy efficiency into their operations and decision making. DVRPC's Profiles in Energy Efficiency series of case studies profile cost-effective and replicable energy-efficiency projects in the Greater Philadelphia region. These profiles not only highlight the projects in large, commercial buildings, but also include work done by homeowners, and by government municipalities in schools, libraries, and for street lights and traffic signals.